Give it up for the kid. Travis Buck with an electric triple, and this time he went the final 90 feet.
How fitting for the game to end with Mienkiewicz desperately firing an offline three-hopper from the seat of his pants, the likes of which we hadn’t seen in a major league game since—well, since Duchscherer did it, with a little more success, in the 8th.
Just before Eric Chavez played hacky-sack with a foul popup before securing it with his bare hand.
Which was long after Danny Haren slipped on another banana peel while delivering a simple pitch.
You’d think it was Friday the 13th or something. This was a fascinating and bizarre game of twists and turns—literally and figuratively—that ended with Brian Bruney grooving an 0-2 pitch to Bobby Kielty right after making him look foolish the pitch before.
Something to watch, apropos of my morning post: Alan Embree struggled tonight for the first time, and it’s worth noting this was Embree’s 7th appearance in a season that is only 12 days old. Not that Geren had a lot of options because his starter reached 100 pitches in the 5th inning. In the end, far from saving his relievers Geren had to use Embree, Marshall, Duchscherer, Calero, and Street to navigate a winnable 11 inning affair. And what a win!
Public Service Announcement: If anyone finds the strike zone, could they please return it to Ed Rapuano? Thank you.
